Star Trek: Ascendancy Breen Confederacy and Dominion War Expansions Review

boardgamequest.com:

Many moons ago, when Tony offered up these expansions for review, I braved the requisite nerd jokes and Star Trek gifs to stake my claim. I’m a lifelong Trekkie, so I’m always up for the opportunity to explore the final frontier from my tabletop. These expansions focus particularly on races and concepts from the excellent Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which set the standard for season-spanning story arcs and character development. Tony has already written a great review of the base game, which contains the Federation, Romulans, and Klingons, so I’d recommend checking that out to learn more about the core mechanisms of the game.

Star Trek: Ascendancy is a space-themed 4X game, spanning an ever-expanding, modular map where classic Trek factions vie to become the most powerful civilization in the galaxy. The base game supports exactly 3 players, with each expansion adding the potential for one additional player. With experience, the game should take about an hour per player.

The Breen Confederacy adds a new playable faction, the mysterious Breen, to the game and increases the potential player count by one. Probably the most obscure race available for Star Trek: Ascendancy, the Breen were featured in Deep Space Nine as secretive but powerful allies of the Dominion. Many Advancements grant special benefits when this civilization operates within Breen Territory, which includes all controlled systems connected to the Breen Home System. The Breen are Isolationists, so they can only exchange Trade Agreements with players who control a system adjacent to Breen Territory. Also, being aggressively Territorial, the Breen can reroll failed To Hit Rolls while in Breen Territory. So, for this faction, it pays to develop a well-guarded